A Pirate's Life For Me! We Need A Musician!

Part 2 of a 4 Part Saga

by Aoikami Sarah

Chapter Two – We Need A Musician

Luffy whistled to himself as he made his way backstage, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. People milled around him, moving set-pieces and costumes. Finally he came to a door bearing a pink star and the word 'Harmony' written in golden glittering letters. He opened the door without knocking.

Sitting in front of a large, well-lit mirror, surrounded by flowers sat Harmony Sairen. Her back was to the door. She had changed out of her sparkling dress and into a simpler black skirt and striped short-sleeved shirt. She leaned on her elbows and held her face in her hands. Luffy stared, unblinking at her image in the mirror. She was crying.

"Hey!" he said in greeting. "Wanna come away with us and be the musician on our super-cool pirate ship?"

She turned, startled and stared at him.

"We have tons of fun sailing the Grand Line and having adventures! We have a doctor and a really good cook, but we don't have a musician. So you should come along." Harmony wiped her eyes hastily and stood. Her brows arched in worry. "Say yes," Luffy urged quietly.

Harmony took a pen and a small notepad from the makeup table and scribbled quickly. She turned the pad to face him and Luffy made a quizzical sound. She waved it and pointed to her mouth, shaking her head. He approached her extended hand, leaned in and read aloud. "I'm sorry, but I can't speak." He straightened and looked her into her soft, green eyes. "Then write yes."

Harmony sort of scoffed and looked down, worrying the pen she was holding.

"Why not?" he asked.

As she looked up to start writing again, the door opened and two more frog-goons entered. Behind them, a small frog-man wearing a white tuxedo with black G-clefs on the lapels entered with a presence that let everyone know he was the center of attention, despite being no more than three feet tall. Harmony quickly hid the pad behind her.

"Is this boy bothering you, Miss Sairen?" the frog-man croaked. She shook her head. "Young man, this place is off-limits to the public."

"Who are you?" Luffy asked, unabashedly.

The frog-man laughed, amused for the moment. "I am this establishment's owner, Kerodo Clef. Miss Sairen is a sensitive artist and I would hate to see her disturbed or any of her equipment damaged in any way." Clef glanced to his henchmen. One of them cracked his neck and chuckled. Harmony bit her lip. She rubbed the pen behind her back faster. "Miss Sairen? Shall we escort him out?"

Harmony brought the pad out from behind her back but hesitated. The frog-goons clamped their webbed fingers down on Luffy's shoulders.

"Come on, Pal. We gotta show you out," one of them drawled in a deep baritone.

"Wait," Luffy said and knocked the clammy hand off. "She hasn't spoken yet."

"She won't," Clef snarled. "She lost her voice more than a year ago. About the time that your mentor abandoned you, right Miss Sairen?"

Mention of her mentor caused her to tense up. She put the pen to paper and slowly started to write. Clef grinned evilly. Luffy pouted and tried to think of something to do, but the only plan that came to mind was beating the hell out of the goons, grabbing the musician and making a run for the Going Merry. A more viable solution arrived just in time.

"There you are!" Chopper cried, his large form taking up much of the oversized doorway. The goons took one look at him, sensed a threat and turned their attention away from Luffy. Usopp peeked around Chopper, saw the goons coming at them, pulled his slingshot out and cried "Tokusei Tabasco Boshi!" The goon on the right took a shot of hot-sauce to the eye, turned and flailed. The one on the left tackled Chopper. Harmony backed away toward the mirror and Clef hid under a chair to avoid Usopp's slingshot.

Luffy grinned wide. "Say yes!" he called to Harmony. She looked from the goons to the reindeer-man to Clef to the sniper to the flowers on the make-up table to the smiling lunatic who had brought chaos into her world and scribbled on her pad. She held up the word 'yes' written as big as she could write.

"Usopp!" Luffy shouted, throwing a punch at the goon who had recovered from the hot-sauce. "Take her and run!"

"Ah! Ok!" he replied, confused, but did as he was told. He grabbed the poor girl by the wrist and hurried out. Half-way down the hall, they could hear the confusion in the dressing room and the stampede of dozens more frog-men coming to help. "What was going on in there!" he asked. She pulled her hand away and stopped running. "If you need to escape, Miss Sairen, we better run for it!"

She shook her head and pointed to a large set of doors to their left.

"I don't understand…"

She opened the doors and ran inside. In the corner, taking up half the room was a box. It was wooden, laced with brown leather straps and about six feet tall by five feet wide.

"Oh please say that's not your luggage!" Usopp moaned. To his utter surprise, she put her back to it, squatted down, laced her arms in two of the straps and stood up, easily lifting the box a good three feet off the ground. She smiled and jogged out of the large doors past him. "Ok…" Usopp shrugged and followed her.

The casino's patrons' heads turned as they raced by, but no one stood in their way until they reached the front doors. Harmony dropped the enormous box behind her in alarm.

A gamut of frog-man-bouncers blocked the way. Usopp cursed and reached for his sling shot. He was surprised to see a note flashed under his nose. Harmony waved it urgently. "Plug your ears…?" he read. "I don't get it." She made a plaintive face and waved the note again. The bouncers were closing in. "I don't know what good that'll do but for some reason, I'm gonna trust you!" He stuffed the sling shot in his pocket and pressed his palms against his ears.

Harmony turned her back to him. He cocked his head to the side as the bouncers relaxed, turned and walked out of the casino, right out through the plate-glass doors as if they didn't even know they were there. More of the same men were making their bulky way through the crowded tables and slot machines towards them. Harmony stood with her head hung, sobbing into her hands. Usopp blinked a few times. "Miss Sairen, come on! We've got to go!"

This snapped her out of it. She nodded and laced her arms through the straps again. They tore through the streets and headed for the pier.

.X.

Sanji was overjoyed to find a world-class epicurean market sprawling for blocks along the arching street. He practically danced from booth to booth, picking out what he wanted. Nami looked at some fancy tea pots one vendor had for sale. Practically everything had cards, dice, lemons, sevens, and other similar icons on it. "Excuse me," she asked the vendor. "What's with the gambling theme?"

The older man blinked at her. "This is Largo," he said simply. "Gambling is our number one tourist trade."

"Really?" Nami drawled and looked towards the flashing lights of the downtown area.

"Really. Largo is the only island between the Straights and the East. Everyone coming through the Straights comes here, so the tourist trade has always been our biggest source of income."

"The Straights?"

"You musta come from the East, huh?" the vendor raised a brow. "The Straights of Crescendo: the only bit of calm water for leagues. Unless you wanna shipwreck, you gotta pass through the straights, between the twin islands of Dihavala and Lee."

"Ah. Good to know. Thanks." She bought a bracelet with little aces, spades, diamonds and clubs hanging off it from the vendor. Nami counted the change as Sanji joined her, hefting shopping bags full of fresh meat and vegetables. Even after dark, the open air market was full of people and chefs from the plethora of restaurants buying fresh ingredients for their menus. Sanji's eyes were stars.

"Come on, Sanji-kun. We have to head back. Knowing those three, they'll probably lose track of time and poor Robin and Zoro will be stuck on the ship all night."

"Do we have to!" he whined, taking in all the amazing things to make more amazing food out of.

"Yes. The sooner we do, the sooner I can go check up on those… lunatics…" she said, trailing off as she spotted Usopp running for his life down a cross street in front of them. "Oh for pity's sake. Looks like I spoke too soon."

Usopp looked back and called to a girl running behind him carrying an impossibly heavy-looking crate. They disappeared down into the wharf district. Sanji sighed and dumped the groceries at Nami's feet. He strolled out into the street, faced uphill and waited for whoever was chasing his friend to catch up. He lit a cigarette.

Three huge frog-men skidded to a halt and menaced the chef. "Oi. Kero-yaro," Sanji greeted them and took a drag off his cigarette. "If you're after the guy with the long nose and the cute girl with the crate on her back," he said and hooked his thumb in their direction. "They went that-a-way."

"Sanji-kun!" Nami barked.

"But I was just thinking that there was something I wanted that this market doesn't offer. How would you like cuisses de grenouilles for dinner, Nami-san?"

She grinned. "Sounds good to me!" Sanji grinned as well.

"What's that?" one of the eight-foot-tall frog-men grunted.

The eye that wasn't hidden by a shock of blond hair widened in delight. "Frogs' Legs!"

Usopp panted and pressed himself as flat as he could against the side of a brick building in an alley and listened intently for their pursuers. Harmony crouched and set the huge crate onto the ground. She scribbled a message and held it up for Usopp to see.

"They're gone?" he read. She nodded. "How can you be sure?"

'I can't hear them anymore,' she wrote.

He tiptoed out into the street and looked around.

"What are you hiding from?" Sanji asked, startling Usopp white.

"Damn it, don't do that!" he cried. "There were these huge frog guys and they were chasing us and…!"

Sanji rolled his eyes. "You mean the grenouilles I took care of up the street?"

"Uh… sure. You took care of them? Alright, Sanji! You were right, Miss Sairen, they're really gone!" he crowed and looked to his companion. She was still cowering behind the box. "Miss Sairen?"

"Usopp, who are you talking to?" Nami asked, catching up.

Usopp blinked at the crate. Slowly, Harmony poked her head around the corner. "It's ok. These are my friends." She inched around the side, clutching her notepad tightly in her small hands. "Guys, this is Miss Harmony Sairen." Usopp gestured to her with his hand. "She's a musician."

"Why were those goons after you?" Nami asked, concerned. Harmony scratched away at her notepad. Nami looked to Usopp, who avoided her inquisitive eyes. "I must get this away from them?" she read. Harmony tapped her hand against the large wooden box.

Sanji crushed out a cigarette. "Then we better get you to a safe place, shouldn't we, Ojou-sama?"

More to come...